Joshua Flys Home to a Crowd!

Joshua was welcomed home by an amazing crowd of friends and family Wednesday afternoon! People showed up in red, white and blue with balloons and signs. We feel so blessed to be a part of a community who has helped us bring him home through prayers, encouragement and even sacrificial giving. We are so grateful. It has truly been a group effort to adopt Joshua!

He's such a treasure.... we brought home the gold!!!

Home!

Rusty, Lesli and Joshua were greeted by ecstatic Hudson & Hannah, family and lots of friends at the Wichita airport. They're home safely! More to come soon...

Flight Update - 2:28pm

As of 2:28pm, here is an update on the flight. Looks like they could be 10 minutes early.

Departs: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP)		Arrives: Wichita, KS ( ICT )
Gate: A7		Gate: 2
Scheduled: 2:15PM		Scheduled: 3:59PM
Actual: 2:10PM		Estimated: 3:48PM
Aircraft: CRJ		Weather: ICT
Note: Flight left the gate at 2:10PM but has not taken off.

Minneapolis to Wichita flight ON TIME

Here is the text of an automated email that Northwest Airlines just sent out about the flight the Cryers are on. Looks like they should be on time!

NW 5672 July 30 ON TIME departs MSP at 2:15 pm arrives ICT 3:59 pm Gate 2

A few more pictures

Here are a few more pictures to check out as the three Cryers are on their way home.

Documents in hand!

The adoption crew

Meal-time & friends

Suggested attire for Wichita airport welcome

from Joshua's Grandma Teakell

Those who would like to could dress in red, white or blue and bring red, white or blue helium baloon(s) to hold.

Information reminder for Wichita airport arrival

from Kyle Walters

Rusty wanted me to remind Wichitans (or those close by) of their arrival information. The three tired travelers are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday July 30 at 3:59pm. They will be traveling on Northwest Airlines flight #5672 from Minneapolis. Please check the flight status before you come to see if it's on time. You can check the web (www.nwa.com) or by call Northwest Airlines (800.225.2525). I will also try to put a post on the blog when I know whether or not their flight left Minneapolis on time. That post should show up an hour or two before their scheduled arrival in Wichita (that's for all of you Cryer blog junkies that check the website every 30 minutes! Okay, so maybe I'm one too...). It would be good to arrive at the airport 10-15 minutes before the flight is scheduled to land so you can make sure you see them.

Rusty also asked that we pray for their return trip. As you can see from the picture in the previous post, 22-month-old Joshua would much rather be "flying high" than sitting still on mom or dad's lap for the 17+ hours of airplane time.

How do you explain this?

You pick the caption that you think best fits the picture!

Caption One: Don't look Mom, we're just being a little wild at heart!!!

Caption Two: Really Mr. Chinese Official man.... we will make great parents... we promise not to hurt him, "abandon him again," keep him away from all danger, and provide him a good education. Seriously... please don't take him back to the orphanage now.... we've already fallen in love!

Caption Three: Well, if he doesn't dig school too much, he can always become a Chinese acrobat!!!

Caption Four (from Grandma Teakell): Having been told by the orphanage that Joshua was timid and introverted, Lesli & Rusty are being careful not to overstimulate him.

Caption Five (also from Grandma Teakell):
Headline - Summer 2026:
"Chinese Born Gymnast brings home the Gold in the High Bar for Team USA.
Edges out Favored Peoples Republic of China team by sizable margin."

More Photos

You can see more photos of the Cryers on the blog of some friends with whom they are traveling. The photos are in the slideshow posted on Monday July 28.

http://fromdatingtodiapers.blogspot.com

A Note from Grandma

Early this morning Grandpa and Grandma rendezvoused with some "not so sleepy but should have been...," four and a half year old twins named Hudson and Hannah. The two little troupers had been up since around four something and traveled a couple of hours. Hats off to Wendy P. for getting two four year olds up that early! They waved, smiled, and hugged us and had to tell us their dreams. (Hudson dreamed about Grandma and Momma and Hannah about a skunk!) Hudson was full of discussion about baseball and the batting glove he had on his hand. Since Grandpa is an expert on baseball they had lots of plans to work on batting. Within an hour of getting home, and before breakfast Grandpa read three books to them! Hats off to Grandpa! What a couple of great little kids they have been while mommy and daddy have been gone for twelve days! We're all full of gratitude for all the friends that entertained them, helping to make the time fly. They had so much fun they didn't even want to stop long enough to field their phone calls and Skype!

(Grandma took pictures this morning but forgot the cable to load them! BOO!)

While we're on the topic of food...

We just came back from an amazing restaurant called the Banana Leaf. It is more Polynesian than Chinese, and reminded many of the families in our travel group of the Rain Forest restaurants in America... except this had better food!! The decor was really fun, kind of a jungle type atmosphere. We were also surprised by some live entertainment!! I even ended up becoming part of the show!!! If I can get this video to post, it was taken just moments before I lost all inhibition and jumped in! Joshua LOVED the music!!! We've become convinced that the "shy, timid and introverted" child we were told we were getting is definitely none of the above!!! He still seems pretty easy going, which is the one label from his referral that I'm glad has stuck!!

Finally, Uigher Food!!!

For those of you who know us, you might remember that we have an affinity for Uighers and their food. Uighers are located in the western part of China, and are actually Muslim so their food tastes different than Chinese. Rusty say's that the only international dish he craves is Uigher lagman. We had been told that there were some Uigher restaurants up in Shenyang, and we planned to eat a lot of lagman, but we didn't find any.

Last night we went on a bit of a wild goose chase with another family in our travel group. (I don't know if I mentioned this before, but Rusty went to junior high with the wife!!) Anyway, we had gotten directions for a fast food Chinese place that some of the other families had liked. Probably an hour later, we decided that we weren't going to find the place. As we were walking back to our hotel, I looked up and saw the word "Uigher" in a restaurant sign. Rusty perked up, ran in, and started speaking to them in Kazakh. He got even more excited to discover that they were truly Uigher, and had lagman!!! So Rusty became our hero.... speaking in some language none of us understood and ordering some amazing dishes!!! Believe me, they taste so much better than the pictures!! Those of you who have had lagman in the past.... remember the tenth commandment!!!!

Squeaker

On Gotcha Day, the orphanage director brought Joshua in with a brand new outfit and shoes on. We had been told to save his clothes from the orphanage in Ziploc bags in order to preserve the smell. It can be very comforting in the transition period for the kids to get a whiff of their past. Anyway since his clothes smelled brand new, I haven't zipped them up.

But the one thing I will probably save forever is the new pair of shoes they brought him in! They're squeaky shoes and they squeak with every step. Joshua absolutely loves them!!!

They are the first things he runs for when he wakes up and brings them to me to put them on. He loves to hear himself squeak! He also loves to run... you can hear him picking up speed! If you chase him he gets the biggest grin, and giggles. It's delightful. We're going to try to post some video soon of him being chased... his facial expression will melt you.

Secret Photos Revealed

A source close to the Cryer family has revealed a few other photos which may or may not have been obtained through said person's secret contacts with Asian authorities.

Breakfast

Outside the medical clinic with Macy Li and her mom

Our Boy is Normal

Well, it's official... our almost two-year-old knows how to get hysterical! We were all at a restaurant celebrating the birthday of one of the new dads tonight and something set Joshua off. Food seems to get him a bit uptight. He was also very tired. Anyway he got mad about something, and it all went downhill from there for about 10 minutes. We were struggling to figure out what set him off, and what might bring him back from his fit. Eventually we distracted him with fruit snacks.... throw a fit, get fruit snacks!! We're in a period of time where we know he's still on system overload, and for the most part, he's been a very happy, easy boy, so when the fits come we don't feel like we can correct them with discipline yet. Grace is having to abound here right now!

Of course we don't have a picture to put with this post.... not something to run get your camera for. The other parents were just looking at us with understanding and empathy!

Sheer Cuteness!!

Guangzhou: Day 1

Let me attempt to draw you a word picture. Today was Medical Exam day. So, they piled all 13 families in our travel group (with their new additions whom they have known since Monday) then drove us to the island. We arrived at the medical exam office just after another bus load of families from a different adopting agency. So there were probably 20+ families going through a maze of medical stations (4 to be exact). This maze took place in a small hallway and 4 very small examination stations. Please keep in mind that at this point most of the babies/children being adopted have started to bond with their new parents, but are largely not warming up to anyone else, especially people in white lab coats who poke, prod, pull their clothes off, etc. By and large it was sheer chaos. We are glad to have that step of the process out of the way. We did learn that Joshua has a fairly large hole in his right ear drum. We also discovered an old black suture in the back of his mouth. We're wondering if there has already been some work done to fix his palate. A little confused though, because he continues to have food come out of his nose when he eats.

After the exam and a quick lunch we had what was called a "paperwork party." Not such a party, but definitely a lot of paperwork!!! I filled out about 15 forms to get Joshua's visa and complete his adoption.

Tomorrow is a shopping day. Hopefully, it will be much easier on the nerves.

Medical Exam Day Slideshow

Arrival in Guangzhou

We arrived in Guangzhou yesterday. The plane ride from Shenyang to Guangzhou took about 4 hours. The plane was packed. Thankfully, Joshua did very well on the flight. We gave him some Benadryl and Tylenol before the flight for fear that the pressure might hurt his ears...and we were hopting the Benadryl might knock him out for at least half the flight. Good news and bad news. Good news is that he had no ear pain despite the regular sinus and ear infections he has had. Bad news is that the Benadryl kind of got him wound up. We won't be giving him any more of it on the flight home! He did finally sleep about the last hour of our flight.

It has been a delight to be reunited with the families we started out with in Beijing and meet the children they are adopting. There are a lot of kids headed to some sweet families and a future that is drastically different than what they have experienced so far. Hearing some of their stories has been both fun and heart-breaking. I think we have made some life-long friends. We have even talked some about arranged marriages :) There are a few cute little girls that Joshua might like someday!

This is Macy Li. We've got her number, and we plan to call it in about 18 years!!!!

Wichita Airport Party

A post from Kyle Walters - Lesli's temporary webmaster

For those of you in the Wichita area, you may like to come and welcome Joshua, Lesli and Rusty home at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport. I asked Rusty what he thought about a big group being there and he thought it would indeed be overload for Joshua, but that "overload" would be the story of his life for a while. So bring on the party!

If you'd like to come, the Cryer's flight is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday July 30 at 3:59pm. They will be traveling on Northwest Airlines flight #5672 from Minneapolis. Please check the flight status before you come to see if it's on time. You can check the web (www.nwa.com) or by call Northwest Airlines (800.225.2525).

It might be good to arrive at the airport 10-15 minutes before the flight is scheduled to land so you can make sure you see them.

Rusty and Lesli have recruited a photographer friend and a videographer friend to capture these moments since they'll be busy hugging necks, not taking pictures!

See you there.

Sleeping Habits

A few weeks before we came to China we shipped a little care package to Joshua. It contained a photo album so that he could see pictures of the aliens who were coming to get him. I also included a disposable camera and asked that the nannies would take pictures for us of him and his life in the orphanage. I was most excited to send a soft little musical bear and a blankie. Now this is no ordinary blankie... it's the softest one I've ever touched.

Through a volunteer at his orphanage I learned that the nannies had placed our album in the window behind his crib and they changed the picture every day. This thrilled us of course! We also learned that it appeared he hadn't been given the bear or blankie. I was a little disappointed, but mostly grateful that he was getting to see the pictures. I reasoned that maybe it wouldn't be fair for him to have a soft blankie when the others didn't have one. Now I'm thinking he just didn't like it.

We received the bear, blankie and camera when we got him, and he doesn't seem to like the feel of the soft stuff at all. In fact, he has the most unusual "blankies." As long as he's got something in his hand, he's great. On Gotcha day he was fisting a piece of candy in each hand. Later he carried the wrap around $1,000 worth of Ben Franklins (we had already shelled over the cash). Another day it was the empty wrapper to his fruit snacks. Tonight it is the hotel business card. This kid will hold on to his treasure for hours! It even interferes with his ball handling skills at times! Here's a pic of his "blankie" tonight when he went to sleep.

As for sleeping, he's a champ! He's slept through the night since we got him, and takes great naps. We love it when he cat naps on us! He's the most snuggly little dude. It's absolutely heavenly!!